Molly Ivins has a piece in today’s Alternet.org on the issue of free speech (as in guaranteed by the 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution) and the growing use of the Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (aka "SLAPP"). The idea behind the SLAPP is that a large (or merely well-funded) corporate entity can bring these suits against people who publicly disagree with them, with the intention of the SLAPPed party shutting up due to lackof money to successfully defend against the suit. Trouble is that it works more often than not especially in major David vs. Goliath situations.
So I wonder if these suits have ever been used against a library or librarian. It wouldn’t take much, and it it’s not that different from folks merely stealing the books they don’t like out of libraries or resorting to political pressure to have books banned in libraries, schools, etc. Just wondering on this.
Meanwhile, Lara is on her way to the offices of the Queens Chronicle to talk about her book.
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